Hi,
I've been training for around 8 months now. I've seen great results but I've never really bothered training my abs and consequently there's not much there at the moment. Around 2 months ago I started training them once a week and even through a cutting phase recently where I've started to get my bodyfat down there's not visibly much there.
1) How often and how hard should you train your abs? I tend to do 3 weights sessions a week similar to Gordy's 3 day split. Am I better off doing some abs related stuff after each day training, or spending a good 20-30 minutes once or twice a week on them? I'm assuming, like all muscle, they need time to repair so doing hundreds of crunches every day would be pointless.
2) Presently when doing things like crunches I get a roaring pain after about 30-40 reps, but I also get back/neck pain too. The back pain can be bad, the neck pain is more of a cramp feeling - if that makes sense? Is this normal. Intuition would tell me my lower back is compensating but is this dangerous or perfectly normal for starting out?
3) I mentioned I'm on a cutting diet at the moment. I'm still training hard and getting large quantities of protein into my diet but carb intake is right down. Is it a waste of time trying to do abs stuff at this phase? I also still do have a bit of fat downstairs so I've wondered if this is actually making things seem worse than they actually are.
Would really appreciate some answers and/or general advice.
I wouldn't mind posting a picture if that will enable anyone to give specific advice on what I need to do.
Cheers
I've been training for around 8 months now. I've seen great results but I've never really bothered training my abs and consequently there's not much there at the moment. Around 2 months ago I started training them once a week and even through a cutting phase recently where I've started to get my bodyfat down there's not visibly much there.
1) How often and how hard should you train your abs? I tend to do 3 weights sessions a week similar to Gordy's 3 day split. Am I better off doing some abs related stuff after each day training, or spending a good 20-30 minutes once or twice a week on them? I'm assuming, like all muscle, they need time to repair so doing hundreds of crunches every day would be pointless.
2) Presently when doing things like crunches I get a roaring pain after about 30-40 reps, but I also get back/neck pain too. The back pain can be bad, the neck pain is more of a cramp feeling - if that makes sense? Is this normal. Intuition would tell me my lower back is compensating but is this dangerous or perfectly normal for starting out?
3) I mentioned I'm on a cutting diet at the moment. I'm still training hard and getting large quantities of protein into my diet but carb intake is right down. Is it a waste of time trying to do abs stuff at this phase? I also still do have a bit of fat downstairs so I've wondered if this is actually making things seem worse than they actually are.
Would really appreciate some answers and/or general advice.
I wouldn't mind posting a picture if that will enable anyone to give specific advice on what I need to do.
Cheers